Deborah
L. Pierce, an emergency room doctor in Philadelphia, was optimistic
when she brought a sex discrimination claim against the medical group
that had dismissed her. Respected by colleagues, she said she had a
stack of glowing evaluations and evidence that the practice had a
pattern of denying women partnerships.

She began to worry, though, once she was blocked from court and forced into private arbitration.

Presiding
over the case was not a judge but a corporate lawyer, Vasilios J.
Kalogredis, who also handled arbitrations. When Ms. Pierce showed up one
day for a hearing, she said she noticed Mr. Kalogredis having a
friendly coffee with the head of the medical group she was suing.

During
the proceedings, the practice withheld crucial evidence, including
audiotapes it destroyed, according to interviews and documents. Ms.
Pierce thought things could not get any worse until a doctor reversed
testimony she had given in Ms. Pierce’s favor. The reason: Male
colleagues had “clarified” her memory.

When
Mr. Kalogredis ultimately ruled against Ms. Pierce, his decision
contained passages pulled, verbatim, from legal briefs prepared by
lawyers for the medical practice, according to documents.

“It
took away my faith in a fair and honorable legal system,” said Ms.
Pierce, who is still paying off $200,000 in legal costs seven years
later.

If
the case had been heard in civil court, Ms. Pierce would have been able
to appeal, raising questions about testimony, destruction of evidence
and potential conflicts of interest.

But arbitration, an investigation by The New York Times has found, often bears little resemblance to court.

Over the last 10 years, thousands of businesses across the country — from big corporations to storefront shops — have used arbitration to create an alternate system of justice.
There, rules tend to favor businesses, and judges and juries have been
replaced by arbitrators who commonly consider the companies their
clients, The Times found.

The
change has been swift and virtually unnoticed, even though it has meant
that tens of millions of Americans have lost a fundamental right: their
day in court.

“This
amounts to the whole-scale privatization of the justice system,” said
Myriam Gilles, a law professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
“Americans are actively being deprived of their rights.”

All
it took was adding simple arbitration clauses to contracts that most
employees and consumers do not even read. Yet at stake are claims of
medical malpractice, sexual harassment, hate crimes, discrimination,
theft, fraud, elder abuse and wrongful death, records and interviews
show....MORE